Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9:13

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The cost of whooping cough

...is a LOT! At least when you time it as I have. For one thing I lost an entire week plus a couple hours of pay.
There are the direct costs: 2 co-pays for doctors, $50 of meds, $10 for a box of masks.

But it all gets worse. My insurance stops tomorrow, although they may back-track to when I actually quit working; that happened when I was in the hospital. I had planned ahead and ordered refills on meds that would run out before my new insurance starts. I was hoping to avoid COBRA; I was going to have to pay for one visit with Dr.Brain and 1-2 with Dr. Mind, but those I could live with. However, my psych meds come from a pharmacy in the city that actually handles them (most chains don't stock and can't obtain Emsam), and I didn't go see Dr. Mind today. Which means that I'll not have insurance when I fill them Saturday. And since I am therefore going to be charging what I think is about $1500 worth of meds (2 scripts only), COBRA becomes much more cost effective.

That means that I'm going to have lost a week of salary AND a COBRA payment, which is another big hunk of money, AND I am not getting out of my vacation quite what I intended, making it a bit more expensive.

Oh well......it could be so much worse. I kept watching the sales lady at RiteAid tonight stare at my mask and then my (thick, not falling out) hair and then my mask. The questions literally were bursting out. She settled on "is it hard to learn to wear those?" instead of asking my diagnosis like the other time I've been in public.So I thought you asked, you get to worry, and explained I haven't worn them much (which is a lie, I have worn them plenty on the job but that's boring) and that I have whooping cough. Her exclamation of "WHOOPING COUGH!" probably got the attention of everyone in the store, but whatever. I'm masked and Purelled, I'm not contagious when masked and it's not my fault I caught this. In fact I caught it doing something good.

There is also going to a psychological cost as I had to skip Dr. Mind due to lack of ability to think, talk, or care. I see him next week, but the week after that is Thanksgiving. Which means we'll have 4 weeks with 3 missed sessions. Which frankly scares me to death. Can't help it, but that's way too many missed sessions especially while I am facing both a job change and the painful restriction on seeing my niece. Which makes me cry if I think of it. Or of her for that matter.

Regardless, out of the few hours I've been awake lately there've been a lot of tears and stress. I can't explain quite how much stress I feel just wanting to be well, but it is a LOT. I know perfectly well that this kind of thing happens to me more because my immune system is weakened by my meds and by the high stress level I live with as part of the illness. But just think, in my first 2 years with this job I am anticipating reconstructive ankle surgery, a couple days off this spring I HOPE for an endometrial ablation which may mean testing before that is done but that is my ultimate hope so I am no longer having periods 50% of the time, a week off with whooping cough, 2 days off in July with mystery pelvic pain plus UTI (probably related to the endometrial ablation thing), and who knows what else. That's ridiculous, and that's before any psych related stuff.

Anyway, getting sleepy. Need to take cough meds.

Night.

1 comment:

I know it seems overwhelming. I'm still coughing due to a recent illness and I use that cough to remind me to pray for you. That's a lot of prayers; I hope you feel some relief!

"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the cover of Thy wings. Selah."

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About Me

Over the years I have noticed that when I have the least hope a rainbow appears. Rainbows are a wonderful combination of beauty, hope, happiness and rain, the product of ugly grey clouds that hide the beauty of the sky. The beauty that is a rainbow can only come with the presence of both rain and sun. Such is life with bipolar disorder. There are good times, there are tough times, and there are rainbows to remind us that beauty will return, sometimes fleetingly and sometimes for a long time. This blog is my story of sadness and hope. Please scroll down to "Who I Am" under Pages to read more about me and the people who populate this blog.

In Case

Please note that any patient experiences noted in this blog are heavily edited to disguise events. Similarities to real persons are coincidental.

Please also know that while I speak as a professional at times, I am not a doctor. I have strong opinions, some based on professional training and/or experience, some based on research, and some based on personal experience of my own variety of this illness. Therefore what I say is my opinion, not a fact and doctors should always be consulted.